I hate Drum Brakes

I went the other day and replaced my brake shoes on the 04 because I had the red brake light and the e-brake handle wasn't working properly. When I got it opened up, the shoes were decent (replaced anyway since I was already in there). I DID NOT REPLACE THE WHEEL CYLINDER. Didn't even disconnect it.

Now. I don't have a whole lot of pressure available. Some one suggested that "air snuck by the wheel cylinders, and I now have air in the system." Is this a thing? I understood brakes to be a closed hydraulic system, and so long as the system stayed closed, things were good. I did adjust the star wheel, and it barely drags the drums with the e-brake off.

Second part of my issue. The e-brake handle doesn't retract fully. I went and adjusted the lever (under the truck) to put a little more tension on the cable figuring that it's 20 y.o. and over time it's stretched slightly. But it still stays about an inch out, and not connecting with the light switch. Could 4 years of rough wheeling and bogs and huge puddles have just clogged the sleeve? I sprayed lithium grease into it this afternoon with no luck, but it might take a little bit to work all the way through the sleeve.

Any help, pointers, ^*% you's, is always welcomed.

PFA

 

I'll let others comment on the Drum Brakes.

+1 for the pic

 

I would check by raising each rear wheel, turning it by hand, and listening for dragging shoes.

If I don't hear the shoes drag, I would adjust the brakes until the point at which I can barely hear the drag around a full revolution of the wheel.

If I do hear them drag, then I would back off the adjustment until I don't hear any drag at all, then adjust as I just described.

If I hear them drag only at one point of a revolution, I would suspect an out-of-round drum and I would think about replacing it.

Hope this helps.

 

If you didn't open the brake lines, air didn't sneak in. That being said, Brake fluid does "go bad" when was the last time you flushed the brake fluid? I can't recommend the motiv power bleeder enough. You can move a ton of fluid through the system easily.

 

Common, just adjust the cable.

 

My '03 has done this since I bought it (brake light is on, right?) Can you visibly see it's not retracting, and you push on it a bit, light goes out? I **may** be able to save you some time and money. Short story: the front cable could be either stretched or about to break.

It's good it got you to inspect and put new shoes on your brakes, but it's likely that is not where the problem is (I went there too, right after installing new shoes and drums.)

My rear cable, the long one behind the intermediate lever, was so seized at the intermediate lever adjustment coupler it broke the end of the cable thread off. There was enough thread on the end of the cable to put a new M8 coupler on, and I turned it all the way in (rearward,) still no love, brake light stays on when brake is released. I replaced the rear cable with a new OEM one, and it also allowed the coupler to turn all the way rearward, light still on.

As a temporary measure while I was waiting for the front cable to come in I put a piece of fuel hose on the bar that depresses the switch when the brake is released as mentioned in the above link. You can do this if your e brake is working fine, but it's a hack and should be fixed. When I installed the front cable, not only did the brake light go out, I was able to adjust the rear cable at the intermediate lever to a more reasonable tension, not all the way back.

While I had both on the bench a side-by-side comparison didn't seem to show the old one longer than the new, but I guess it was. Haven't had a problem since and that #$%^@@#$ light goes out when I release the brake.

 

I think mine is the upper cable that attaches to the handle. The lever it's connected to under the driver's seat stays pulled forward and I can hit it with a hammer to move it back. I tried lubing the sleeve with lithium but it didn't do much. I figured I had just submerged it so much it was packed with silt.

 

unless you adjusted things after replacing the shoes Your parking brake will not work!

You will have very long pedal travel the wheel cylinders expanding to take up the distance .

If the drums are out of spec and the shoes not adjusted i have seen wheel cylinders push the plungers out of the cylinder . Very rare but I have seen it.

Good Luck.

 

Right, that's the front cable, and the intermediary lever end has to move freely side to side in the lever. If it's that stuck, figure out how to get it moving freely (spoiler alert, getting it to do so doesn't fix the problem, at least in my case LOL.)

The end of the front cable is held into the intermediate lever with a pin with a hole in it for a clevis pin (right word??) The vertical pin was so rusted in I had to press it out with a small puller and clean it up. Getting the other end of the cable out, under the dash, is a bit "fiddly." There is a pulley with a pin that doesn't appear to have room to slide out. Push the gas pedal down to give it room. Now you can work on removing the end of the cable from the lever itself, and you don't have to unbolt the lever from the dash. More info in this post.

 

Never, or only when parts were replaced/repaired and fluid was lost.

 

People with automatics tend not to use the parking brake use it or loose it. It does tend to adjust the rear breaks. Mine is a manual I pull it on even in the garage!

 

Vleed the load proportioning valve under the bed as part of the bleeding process. It gets overlooked but has a bleed nipple.

 

Drum brakes do suck. Saying that the Toyota parking brake mechanism is also a piece of shit specifically the bell crank. It's steel and an aluminum housing and will seize up even if you use it every day (happened to me on my 5 speed). I ended up ditching the rear drums and swapped in an fj80 rear axle with discs and have been a happy camper since.

 

in my part of the world trying to bleed the LSPV results in a manual valve or big dollars replacing the valve before after markets valves.

 

Did you end up using the parking brake on that axle?

Transfer case brake?

The only time I had problems with the bell cranks seizing if the vehicle sat for a few months.

 

On my factory axle it was used multiple times a day and the POS still rusted and froze up. On the fj80 axle the parking brake is hooked up for 10mins once a year to go get the state mandated "safety inspection" done.

 

I grew up with drum brakes and applauded disks when the Europeans started importing cars but there is a reason trucks still use drum brakes one being sweep area the other being self energizing, the actual drum rotation helps apply the brakes (leading trailing shoes) great for things designed to haul loads. Like any thing else they require maintenance and are generally ignored.

 

If your star adjusters freeze/rust up then the brakes lose the ability to self adjust and shoe travel lengthens so much that drum to shoe contact is lost. This also affects the parking brake so this is the first place to check if your shoes have plenty of material left.

 

^^^^^^
Try getting that to operate without needing the hammer...

Brake fluid absorbs moisture over time and should be replaced occasionally to prevent rust/corrosion inside the hydraulic brake parts.

Part of a brake inspection/service is to carefully pull the boots back on the wheel cylinders to check for any leakage or rusting underneath, below please find a good example of what you don't want to find.



Great photo in the opening post, you should submit that one for the annual calendar competition.

 

Pretty old trunk.